Doctors find large piece of 84-year-old man's brain taken over by air pocket

An 84-year-old man in Northern Ireland complaining of frequent falls and weakness on the left side of his body discovered that it was due to a massive air pocket that had filled the bulk of a section of his brain.

Though his symptoms were not entirely alarming for a man of his age and there were no indicators of the typical sources of trouble like heavy drinking, smoking, or poor fitness, doctors delved deeper, notes the Washington Post.

Brain scans revealed roughly 3 ½-inch long air pocket in the man’s right frontal lobe and a benign bone tumor in the area between the nasal and brain cavities.

The tumor created an opening that had apparently been acting like a funnel, channeling air into the lobe.

The patient declined surgery due to the risks it presented, and the case report stated, “the left-sided weakness was noted to have resolved on follow-up 12 weeks later and he remained well.”